pathlib — Object-oriented filesystem paths¶

General properties¶

Paths are immutable and hashable. Paths of a same flavour are comparable and orderable. These properties respect the flavour’s case-folding semantics:

>>> PurePosixPath('foo') == PurePosixPath('FOO')
False
>>> PureWindowsPath('foo') == PureWindowsPath('FOO')
True
>>> PureWindowsPath('FOO') in { PureWindowsPath('foo') }
True
>>> PureWindowsPath('C:') < PureWindowsPath('d:')
True

Paths of a different flavour compare unequal and cannot be ordered:

>>> PureWindowsPath('foo') == PurePosixPath('foo')
False
>>> PureWindowsPath('foo') < PurePosixPath('foo')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'PureWindowsPath' and 'PurePosixPath'

Operators¶

The slash operator helps create child paths, similarly to os.path.join():

>>> p = PurePath('/etc')
>>> p
PurePosixPath('/etc')
>>> p / 'init.d' / 'apache2'
PurePosixPath('/etc/init.d/apache2')
>>> q = PurePath('bin')
>>> '/usr' / q
PurePosixPath('/usr/bin')

A path object can be used anywhere an object implementing os.PathLike is accepted:

>>> import os
>>> p = PurePath('/etc')
>>> os.fspath(p)
'/etc'

The string representation of a path is the raw filesystem path itself (in native form, e.g. with backslashes under Windows), which you can pass to any function taking a file path as a string:

>>> p = PurePath('/etc')
>>> str(p)
'/etc'
>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')
>>> str(p)
'c:\\Program Files'

Similarly, calling bytes on a path gives the raw filesystem path as a bytes object, as encoded by os.fsencode():

>>> bytes(p)
b'/etc'

Accessing individual parts¶

To access the individual “parts” (components) of a path, use the following property:

PurePath.parts¶

A tuple giving access to the path’s various components:

>>>

>>> p = PurePath('/usr/bin/python3')
>>> p.parts
('/', 'usr', 'bin', 'python3')

>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/PSF')
>>> p.parts
('c:\\', 'Program Files', 'PSF')

(note how the drive and local root are regrouped in a single part)

Methods and properties¶

Pure paths provide the following methods and properties:

PurePath.drive¶

A string representing the drive letter or name, if any:

>>>

>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').drive
'c:'
>>> PureWindowsPath('/Program Files/').drive
''
>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').drive
''

UNC shares are also considered drives:

>>>

>>> PureWindowsPath('//host/share/foo.txt').drive
'\\\\host\\share'

PurePath.root¶

A string representing the (local or global) root, if any:

>>>

>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').root
'\\'
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:Program Files/').root
''
>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').root
'/'

UNC shares always have a root:

>>>

>>> PureWindowsPath('//host/share').root
'\\'

PurePath.anchor¶

The concatenation of the drive and root:

>>>

>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').anchor
'c:\\'
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:Program Files/').anchor
'c:'
>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').anchor
'/'
>>> PureWindowsPath('//host/share').anchor
'\\\\host\\share\\'

PurePath.parents¶

An immutable sequence providing access to the logical ancestors of the path:

>>>

>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/foo/bar/setup.py')
>>> p.parents[0]
PureWindowsPath('c:/foo/bar')
>>> p.parents[1]
PureWindowsPath('c:/foo')
>>> p.parents[2]
PureWindowsPath('c:/')

Changed in version 3.10: The parents sequence now supports slices and negative index values.

PurePath.parent¶

The logical parent of the path:

>>>

>>> p = PurePosixPath('/a/b/c/d')
>>> p.parent
PurePosixPath('/a/b/c')

You cannot go past an anchor, or empty path:

>>>

>>> p = PurePosixPath('/')
>>> p.parent
PurePosixPath('/')
>>> p = PurePosixPath('.')
>>> p.parent
PurePosixPath('.')

Note

This is a purely lexical operation, hence the following behaviour:

>>>

>>> p = PurePosixPath('foo/..')
>>> p.parent
PurePosixPath('foo')

If you want to walk an arbitrary filesystem path upwards, it is recommended to first call Path.resolve() so as to resolve symlinks and eliminate “..” components.

PurePath.name¶

A string representing the final path component, excluding the drive and root, if any:

>>>

>>> PurePosixPath('my/library/setup.py').name
'setup.py'

UNC drive names are not considered:

>>>

>>> PureWindowsPath('//some/share/setup.py').name
'setup.py'
>>> PureWindowsPath('//some/share').name
''

PurePath.suffix¶

The file extension of the final component, if any:

>>>

>>> PurePosixPath('my/library/setup.py').suffix
'.py'
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').suffix
'.gz'
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library').suffix
''

PurePath.suffixes¶

A list of the path’s file extensions:

>>>

>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gar').suffixes
['.tar', '.gar']
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').suffixes
['.tar', '.gz']
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library').suffixes
[]

PurePath.stem¶

The final path component, without its suffix:

>>>

>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').stem
'library.tar'
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar').stem
'library'
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library').stem
'library'

PurePath.as_posix()¶

Return a string representation of the path with forward slashes (/):

>>>

>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:\\windows')
>>> str(p)
'c:\\windows'
>>> p.as_posix()
'c:/windows'

PurePath.as_uri()¶

Represent the path as a file URI. ValueError is raised if the path isn’t absolute.

>>>

>>> p = PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')
>>> p.as_uri()
'file:///etc/passwd'
>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/Windows')
>>> p.as_uri()
'file:///c:/Windows'

PurePath.is_absolute()¶

Return whether the path is absolute or not. A path is considered absolute if it has both a root and (if the flavour allows) a drive:

>>>

>>> PurePosixPath('/a/b').is_absolute()
True
>>> PurePosixPath('a/b').is_absolute()
False

>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/a/b').is_absolute()
True
>>> PureWindowsPath('/a/b').is_absolute()
False
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:').is_absolute()
False
>>> PureWindowsPath('//some/share').is_absolute()
True

PurePath.is_relative_to(*other)¶

Return whether or not this path is relative to the other path.

>>>

>>> p = PurePath('/etc/passwd')
>>> p.is_relative_to('/etc')
True
>>> p.is_relative_to('/usr')
False

New in version 3.9.

PurePath.is_reserved()¶

With PureWindowsPath, return True if the path is considered reserved under Windows, False otherwise. With PurePosixPath, False is always returned.

>>>

>>> PureWindowsPath('nul').is_reserved()
True
>>> PurePosixPath('nul').is_reserved()
False

File system calls on reserved paths can fail mysteriously or have unintended effects.

PurePath.joinpath(*other)¶

Calling this method is equivalent to combining the path with each of the other arguments in turn:

>>>

>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath('passwd')
PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')
>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath(PurePosixPath('passwd'))
PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')
>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath('init.d', 'apache2')
PurePosixPath('/etc/init.d/apache2')
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:').joinpath('/Program Files')
PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')

PurePath.match(pattern)¶

Match this path against the provided glob-style pattern. Return True if matching is successful, False otherwise.

If pattern is relative, the path can be either relative or absolute, and matching is done from the right:

>>>

>>> PurePath('a/b.py').match('*.py')
True
>>> PurePath('/a/b/c.py').match('b/*.py')
True
>>> PurePath('/a/b/c.py').match('a/*.py')
False

If pattern is absolute, the path must be absolute, and the whole path must match:

>>>

>>> PurePath('/a.py').match('/*.py')
True
>>> PurePath('a/b.py').match('/*.py')
False

As with other methods, case-sensitivity follows platform defaults:

>>>

>>> PurePosixPath('b.py').match('*.PY')
False
>>> PureWindowsPath('b.py').match('*.PY')
True

PurePath.relative_to(*other)¶

Compute a version of this path relative to the path represented by other. If it’s impossible, ValueError is raised:

>>>

>>> p = PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')
>>> p.relative_to('/')
PurePosixPath('etc/passwd')
>>> p.relative_to('/etc')
PurePosixPath('passwd')
>>> p.relative_to('/usr')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "pathlib.py", line 694, in relative_to
    .format(str(self), str(formatted)))
ValueError: '/etc/passwd' is not in the subpath of '/usr' OR one path is relative and the other absolute.

NOTE: This function is part of PurePath and works with strings. It does not check or access the underlying file structure.

PurePath.with_name(name)¶

Return a new path with the name changed. If the original path doesn’t have a name, ValueError is raised:

>>>

>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')
>>> p.with_name('setup.py')
PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/setup.py')
>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/')
>>> p.with_name('setup.py')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 751, in with_name
    raise ValueError("%r has an empty name" % (self,))
ValueError: PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty name

PurePath.with_stem(stem)¶

Return a new path with the stem changed. If the original path doesn’t have a name, ValueError is raised:

>>>

>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/draft.txt')
>>> p.with_stem('final')
PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/final.txt')
>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')
>>> p.with_stem('lib')
PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/lib.gz')
>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/')
>>> p.with_stem('')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 861, in with_stem
    return self.with_name(stem + self.suffix)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 851, in with_name
    raise ValueError("%r has an empty name" % (self,))
ValueError: PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty name

New in version 3.9.

PurePath.with_suffix(suffix)¶

Return a new path with the suffix changed. If the original path doesn’t have a suffix, the new suffix is appended instead. If the suffix is an empty string, the original suffix is removed:

>>>

>>> p = PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')
>>> p.with_suffix('.bz2')
PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.bz2')
>>> p = PureWindowsPath('README')
>>> p.with_suffix('.txt')
PureWindowsPath('README.txt')
>>> p = PureWindowsPath('README.txt')
>>> p.with_suffix('')
PureWindowsPath('README')

Methods¶

Concrete paths provide the following methods in addition to pure paths methods. Many of these methods can raise an OSError if a system call fails (for example because the path doesn’t exist).

classmethod Path.cwd()¶

Return a new path object representing the current directory (as returned by os.getcwd()):

>>>

>>> Path.cwd()
PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib')

classmethod Path.home()¶

Return a new path object representing the user’s home directory (as returned by os.path.expanduser() with ~ construct). If the home directory can’t be resolved, RuntimeError is raised.

>>>

>>> Path.home()
PosixPath('/home/antoine')

New in version 3.5.

Path.stat(*, follow_symlinks=True)¶

Return a os.stat_result object containing information about this path, like os.stat(). The result is looked up at each call to this method.

This method normally follows symlinks; to stat a symlink add the argument follow_symlinks=False, or use lstat().

>>>

>>> p = Path('setup.py')
>>> p.stat().st_size
956
>>> p.stat().st_mtime
1327883547.852554

Changed in version 3.10: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.chmod(mode, *, follow_symlinks=True)¶

Change the file mode and permissions, like os.chmod().

This method normally follows symlinks. Some Unix flavours support changing permissions on the symlink itself; on these platforms you may add the argument follow_symlinks=False, or use lchmod().

>>>

>>> p = Path('setup.py')
>>> p.stat().st_mode
33277
>>> p.chmod(0o444)
>>> p.stat().st_mode
33060

Changed in version 3.10: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.exists()¶

Whether the path points to an existing file or directory:

>>>

>>> Path('.').exists()
True
>>> Path('setup.py').exists()
True
>>> Path('/etc').exists()
True
>>> Path('nonexistentfile').exists()
False

Note

If the path points to a symlink, exists() returns whether the symlink points to an existing file or directory.

Path.expanduser()¶

Return a new path with expanded ~ and ~user constructs, as returned by os.path.expanduser(). If a home directory can’t be resolved, RuntimeError is raised.

>>>

>>> p = PosixPath('~/films/Monty Python')
>>> p.expanduser()
PosixPath('/home/eric/films/Monty Python')

New in version 3.5.

Path.glob(pattern)¶

Glob the given relative pattern in the directory represented by this path, yielding all matching files (of any kind):

>>>

>>> sorted(Path('.').glob('*.py'))
[PosixPath('pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('test_pathlib.py')]
>>> sorted(Path('.').glob('*/*.py'))
[PosixPath('docs/conf.py')]

Patterns are the same as for fnmatch, with the addition of “**” which means “this directory and all subdirectories, recursively”. In other words, it enables recursive globbing:

>>>

>>> sorted(Path('.').glob('**/*.py'))
[PosixPath('build/lib/pathlib.py'),
 PosixPath('docs/conf.py'),
 PosixPath('pathlib.py'),
 PosixPath('setup.py'),
 PosixPath('test_pathlib.py')]

Note

Using the “**” pattern in large directory trees may consume an inordinate amount of time.

Raises an auditing event pathlib.Path.glob with arguments self, pattern.

Path.group()¶

Return the name of the group owning the file. KeyError is raised if the file’s gid isn’t found in the system database.

Path.is_dir()¶

Return True if the path points to a directory (or a symbolic link pointing to a directory), False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink; other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_file()¶

Return True if the path points to a regular file (or a symbolic link pointing to a regular file), False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink; other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_mount()¶

Return True if the path is a mount point: a point in a file system where a different file system has been mounted. On POSIX, the function checks whether path’s parent, path/.., is on a different device than path, or whether path/.. and path point to the same i-node on the same device — this should detect mount points for all Unix and POSIX variants. Not implemented on Windows.

New in version 3.7.

Path.is_symlink()¶

Return True if the path points to a symbolic link, False otherwise.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist; other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_socket()¶

Return True if the path points to a Unix socket (or a symbolic link pointing to a Unix socket), False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink; other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_fifo()¶

Return True if the path points to a FIFO (or a symbolic link pointing to a FIFO), False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink; other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_block_device()¶

Return True if the path points to a block device (or a symbolic link pointing to a block device), False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink; other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_char_device()¶

Return True if the path points to a character device (or a symbolic link pointing to a character device), False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink; other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.iterdir()¶

When the path points to a directory, yield path objects of the directory contents:

>>>

>>> p = Path('docs')
>>> for child in p.iterdir(): child
...
PosixPath('docs/conf.py')
PosixPath('docs/_templates')
PosixPath('docs/make.bat')
PosixPath('docs/index.rst')
PosixPath('docs/_build')
PosixPath('docs/_static')
PosixPath('docs/Makefile')

The children are yielded in arbitrary order, and the special entries '.' and '..' are not included. If a file is removed from or added to the directory after creating the iterator, whether a path object for that file be included is unspecified.

Path.lchmod(mode)¶

Like Path.chmod() but, if the path points to a symbolic link, the symbolic link’s mode is changed rather than its target’s.

Path.lstat()¶

Like Path.stat() but, if the path points to a symbolic link, return the symbolic link’s information rather than its target’s.

Path.mkdir(mode=511, parents=False, exist_ok=False)¶

Create a new directory at this given path. If mode is given, it is combined with the process’ umask value to determine the file mode and access flags. If the path already exists, FileExistsError is raised.

If parents is true, any missing parents of this path are created as needed; they are created with the default permissions without taking mode into account (mimicking the POSIX mkdir -p command).

If parents is false (the default), a missing parent raises FileNotFoundError.

If exist_ok is false (the default), FileExistsError is raised if the target directory already exists.

If exist_ok is true, FileExistsError exceptions will be ignored (same behavior as the POSIX mkdir -p command), but only if the last path component is not an existing non-directory file.

Changed in version 3.5: The exist_ok parameter was added.

Path.open(mode='r', buffering=- 1, encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None)¶

Open the file pointed to by the path, like the built-in open() function does:

>>>

>>> p = Path('setup.py')
>>> with p.open() as f:
...     f.readline()
...
'#!/usr/bin/env python3\n'

Path.owner()¶

Return the name of the user owning the file. KeyError is raised if the file’s uid isn’t found in the system database.

Path.read_bytes()¶

Return the binary contents of the pointed-to file as a bytes object:

>>>

>>> p = Path('my_binary_file')
>>> p.write_bytes(b'Binary file contents')
20
>>> p.read_bytes()
b'Binary file contents'

New in version 3.5.

Path.read_text(encoding=None, errors=None)¶

Return the decoded contents of the pointed-to file as a string:

>>>

>>> p = Path('my_text_file')
>>> p.write_text('Text file contents')
18
>>> p.read_text()
'Text file contents'

The file is opened and then closed. The optional parameters have the same meaning as in open().

New in version 3.5.

Path.readlink()¶

Return the path to which the symbolic link points (as returned by os.readlink()):

>>>

>>> p = Path('mylink')
>>> p.symlink_to('setup.py')
>>> p.readlink()
PosixPath('setup.py')

New in version 3.9.

Path.rename(target)¶

Rename this file or directory to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target. On Unix, if target exists and is a file, it will be replaced silently if the user has permission. target can be either a string or another path object:

>>>

>>> p = Path('foo')
>>> p.open('w').write('some text')
9
>>> target = Path('bar')
>>> p.rename(target)
PosixPath('bar')
>>> target.open().read()
'some text'

The target path may be absolute or relative. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the current working directory, not the directory of the Path object.

Changed in version 3.8: Added return value, return the new Path instance.

Path.replace(target)¶

Rename this file or directory to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target. If target points to an existing file or empty directory, it will be unconditionally replaced.

The target path may be absolute or relative. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the current working directory, not the directory of the Path object.

Changed in version 3.8: Added return value, return the new Path instance.

Path.resolve(strict=False)¶

Make the path absolute, resolving any symlinks. A new path object is returned:

>>>

>>> p = Path()
>>> p
PosixPath('.')
>>> p.resolve()
PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib')

“..” components are also eliminated (this is the only method to do so):

>>>

>>> p = Path('docs/../setup.py')
>>> p.resolve()
PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/setup.py')

If the path doesn’t exist and strict is True, FileNotFoundError is raised. If strict is False, the path is resolved as far as possible and any remainder is appended without checking whether it exists. If an infinite loop is encountered along the resolution path, RuntimeError is raised.

New in version 3.6: The strict argument (pre-3.6 behavior is strict).

Path.rglob(pattern)¶

This is like calling Path.glob() with “**/” added in front of the given relative pattern:

>>>

>>> sorted(Path().rglob("*.py"))
[PosixPath('build/lib/pathlib.py'),
 PosixPath('docs/conf.py'),
 PosixPath('pathlib.py'),
 PosixPath('setup.py'),
 PosixPath('test_pathlib.py')]

Raises an auditing event pathlib.Path.rglob with arguments self, pattern.

Path.rmdir()¶

Remove this directory. The directory must be empty.

Path.samefile(other_path)¶

Return whether this path points to the same file as other_path, which can be either a Path object, or a string. The semantics are similar to os.path.samefile() and os.path.samestat().

An OSError can be raised if either file cannot be accessed for some reason.

>>>

>>> p = Path('spam')
>>> q = Path('eggs')
>>> p.samefile(q)
False
>>> p.samefile('spam')
True

New in version 3.5.

Path.symlink_to(target, target_is_directory=False)¶

Make this path a symbolic link to target. Under Windows, target_is_directory must be true (default False) if the link’s target is a directory. Under POSIX, target_is_directory’s value is ignored.

>>>

>>> p = Path('mylink')
>>> p.symlink_to('setup.py')
>>> p.resolve()
PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/setup.py')
>>> p.stat().st_size
956
>>> p.lstat().st_size
8

Note

The order of arguments (link, target) is the reverse of os.symlink()’s.

Path.hardlink_to(target)¶

Make this path a hard link to the same file as target.

Note

The order of arguments (link, target) is the reverse of os.link()’s.

New in version 3.10.

Path.link_to(target)¶

Make target a hard link to this path.

Warning

This function does not make this path a hard link to target, despite the implication of the function and argument names. The argument order (target, link) is the reverse of Path.symlink_to() and Path.hardlink_to(), but matches that of os.link().

New in version 3.8.

Deprecated since version 3.10: This method is deprecated in favor of Path.hardlink_to(), as the argument order of Path.link_to() does not match that of Path.symlink_to().

Path.touch(mode=438, exist_ok=True)¶

Create a file at this given path. If mode is given, it is combined with the process’ umask value to determine the file mode and access flags. If the file already exists, the function succeeds if exist_ok is true (and its modification time is updated to the current time), otherwise FileExistsError is raised.

Path.unlink(missing_ok=False)¶

Remove this file or symbolic link. If the path points to a directory, use Path.rmdir() instead.

If missing_ok is false (the default), FileNotFoundError is raised if the path does not exist.

If missing_ok is true, FileNotFoundError exceptions will be ignored (same behavior as the POSIX rm -f command).

Changed in version 3.8: The missing_ok parameter was added.

Path.write_bytes(data)¶

Open the file pointed to in bytes mode, write data to it, and close the file:

>>>

>>> p = Path('my_binary_file')
>>> p.write_bytes(b'Binary file contents')
20
>>> p.read_bytes()
b'Binary file contents'

An existing file of the same name is overwritten.

New in version 3.5.

Path.write_text(data, encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None)¶

Open the file pointed to in text mode, write data to it, and close the file:

>>>

>>> p = Path('my_text_file')
>>> p.write_text('Text file contents')
18
>>> p.read_text()
'Text file contents'

An existing file of the same name is overwritten. The optional parameters have the same meaning as in open().

New in version 3.5.

Changed in version 3.10: The newline parameter was added.